The Night Before Christmas by MyWindowIsOpen
by Naughty or Nice Contest
Summary: When Bella meets Edward dressed as Santa at the mall, they feel an instant attraction. Will their problem children interfere, causing them to give up on finding love with each other?


**Contest entry for the Naughty or Nice Twilight Christmas Contest**

 **Title:** The Night Before Christmas

 **Pairing:** Edward & Bella

 **Rating:** T

 **Word count:** 5,497

 **Summary:** When Bella meets Edward dressed as Santa at the mall, they feel an instant attraction. Will their problem children interfere, causing them to give up on finding love with each other?

 **Disclaimer:** Twilight and its inclusive material is copyright to Stephenie Meyer. Original creation, including but not limited to plot and characters, is copyright to the respective authors of each story. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

 **The Night Before Christmas**

"Ho, ho, ho." I announce as loudly and joyfully as I can.

' _Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'_ is officially stuck in my head thanks to malls incessant need to play it along with various other Christmas carols.

People are bustling past me with their packages wrapped in pretty paper of gold and adorned with ribbons of red.

Playing Santa in the mall this time of year is beyond hectic. I don't know how I ever let my hairbrained brother, Emmett convince me to pick up these extra shifts?

Oh yeah, that's right… _'You're a single father and in need of the extra cash'_. I think bitterly to myself. Whenever you're raising your eight year old daughter on your own, things are often tight financially for us.

Therefore, I find myself sitting upon a throne, wearing this pillow-stuffed, red Santa costume, while donning the world's itchiest, fake beard known to mankind; surrounded by what seems to be a mix between the North Pole and a winter wonderland. Looking around, I see I've got more than a dozen _screaming_ children, and their frazzled parents, lined up to tell _, me_ dear ' _Ole_ Santa' what they want for Christmas.

Their parents seem more excited at the prospect of their poor kid sitting on some stranger's lap than their child is.

I'm starting to get a pounding headache behind my right eye.

' _Baa Humbug'_ , I think to myself. I just want to go home, curl up on the couch, and watch _'A Charlie Brown Christmas'_ with Elizabeth.

Angela was hired on as an elf to assist the rugrats up the steps and onto my lap. But she just stands by the camera as the next poor parent tries to wrangle their darling, little angel into submission.

The line finally dwindled down to the last duo of Santa Land's visitors. The smallest of the pair doesn't seem all that thrilled to be here. She doesn't seem to want to confide in 'Santa' what's on her list.

"I don't wanna." The girl huffs. Her mouth puckers and her chestnut curls bounce around her adorable heart-shaped face as she shakes her head.

I can't help the smile that stretches across my lips. Her stubbornness reminds me of Elizabeth, my daughter, who happens to be a little terror.

The woman pleads with her. "Please, don't act like this today. Can't you just go up there and get your picture taken with Santa?"

The tiny terror, who appears to be about Elizabeth's age, looks up at me; her big, brown eyes show she's skeptical about approaching me. I soften my eyes and offer her my kindest smile, even though she probably can't see it under all this synthetic fiber covering my face. Truth be known it's probably causing me to break out with a rash since it's been itching me.

She growls at the lady, and stomps her little feet up the steps; jumping up onto my lap.

"Oof." I exclaim under my breath as I cringe because she landed on my junk, causing tears to well up in my eyes.

"Hello." My voice pitch is high, causing me to have to clear my throat.

I look out to the woman accompanying this tiny ballbuster, and she's… lovely. She has long, chestnut hair just like the little girl with tired, yet beautiful, brown eyes. At least it seems like she's got a sense of humor because she's wearing a Christmas sweater that makes it look like her head is sitting atop of an elf's body.

How can someone make such an ugly sweater look as good as she does?

She catches me staring at her and she mouths the word 'sorry' to me. I nod my head in acknowledgement of her, then turn my attention back to the precious munchkin perched on my legs.

"Now, little lady, have you been a _good_ girl this year?" I ask as jovially as I can. I hear some sort of cough slash giggling fit coming from the side. I peek over and see the woman, who I assume is the child's mother, covering her mouth to stifle her laughter and her shoulders are shaking with mirth.

She shakes her head and clears her throat. "Ahem, sorry about that." She apologizes, looking sheepish.

I shrug my shoulders, getting back to the task at hand. "What would you like for me to bring you for Christmas this year?" I ask in my best St. Nick voice I'm able to mimic.

The pint-sized beauty looks me over, watching me shrewdly with eyes too knowledgeable for someone as young as her. If I were to be honest, she's making me feel a little bit nervous.

She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. "You're not the _real_ Santa." She says matter-of-factly.

Of course, I don't know what to say to that. Some parents don't want their children to know that Santa isn't real. They want to keep the magic alive as long as they possibly can. I certainly don't want to be the one to cause this child's illusions of Santa Claus to come to a crashing halt.

"Of course, I'm Santa." I give my signatured belly laugh, which most kids love, but not this one.

Instead of enjoying what is my 'bowl full of jelly-laugh', she decides she wants to see for herself… by yanking my fake beard down.

"See!" She yells in my face. "I said you weren't the real Santa." Her lips turn up into a self-satisfied grin.

"Carlie!" The woman that brought her to see 'Santa' comes running over, picking her up off of my lap.

"I can't believe you just did that." She exclaims out in disbelief. Her cheeks redden with embarrassment.

I sit there stunned by the fact this cute, little girl could be so… mean. Then, I remember how Elizabeth is. I don't know this woman, but I can empathize with her.

I fix my phony beard and step towards the two bickering _ladies_.

"Hello."

They stop their argument and look at me expectedly. "I don't mean to intrude."

The lovely woman looks at me with a mixture of emotions flitting over her face. She looks tired, regretful, embarrassed, and one that I know so well, frustrated.

When you have what most people deem a "problem child" it's hard to deal with the day to day things you have to endear with them. But no matter how far they push your limits, you love them unconditionally.

The thing is, no one wants to help you because the child's behavior has run everyone that you have in your life away, including girlfriends.

I've not been able to have an official girlfriend since Elizabeth's been able to form a proper sentence. The last woman I dated, Elizabeth was six, and it lasted for three weeks. Jane ran out of my house screaming, holding what was once her hair, after Elizabeth cut her ponytail off while she was taking a nap on the couch. That's been two years ago, and I've not attempted to date anyone since.

Elizabeth is a really good kid, she truly is, but she has trust issues. She pushes people away, keeps them at arm's length. Removes them from her life before they can get close and hurt her by leaving her. It's her way of protecting herself, protecting the both of us. At least that's what her therapist said about her actions.

It doesn't make what she does right, but I'm her dad, and I love her unconditionally; so I just try to be understanding with her feelings.

"I'm sorry." She apologizes to me for what happened. "Carlie, apologize to Santa." She puts her palm on Carlie's back, guiding her towards me.

"That's not Santa, momma." Carlie rolls her eyes at her mom. So she is the girl's mom.

Sighing with frustration. "Carlie Ann, it doesn't matter if he's the real Santa Claus or not, you were disrespectful to him and you need to apologize. Now." She gave Carlie what my mom used to call the _mom_ eyes.

It didn't matter what you were doing, when my mom told you to do something and you didn't do it, she'd give you the _mom_ eyes. If you got that look, you knew you were in trouble if you didn't do what she told you to do, asap.

"I'm sorry." Carlie mumbles, looking down toward her feet.

"Carlie." Her mom says in a tone that meant business.

Sighing, Carlie looks up at me defiantly, a smirk playing on her lips. "I'm sorry you're trying to pass yourself off as Santa to the schmucks that come to the mall." She crosses her arms, looking rather amused with herself.

My mouth drops open in shock. Man, she'd give Elizabeth a run for her money.

"Carlie Ann Swan, what in the world is wrong with you? I've taught you better than to act like that." She turns looking at me. "I'm so sorry."

"Edward." I offer her my hand as I introduce myself to her.

She accepts my offer and shakes my hand. "Bella." She introduces herself. She pulls Carlie over to her side. "And this is my daughter, Carlie." She smiles warmly at her.

I offer to shake Carlie's hand too, but she keeps her arms crossed.

"It's nice to meet you, Carlie." I tell her honestly, and then she rolls her eyes at me.

Bella steps aside, away from Carlie, motioning for me to follow her. "Edward, I'm really sorry about her behavior."

I try to wave it off, but she won't allow it.

"No, Edward, it's not okay. She needs to know that she can't behave that way and get by with it. She's always had an attitude with me, but to pull a stunt like that…" She waves back toward Santa's throne. "I'm mortified."

"I understand, Bella. I'm a single father, trying to raise my daughter on my own. Elizabeth is a bit of a handful." I shake my head. My mind racing with all the antics she's pulled over the years.

I'm lucky that I didn't get my ass beat the day she ran up a groom and his new bride at their wedding reception in the park; asking him, _'Daddy, where's mommy at'?_ The look on the poor, unsuspecting bride's face when Elizabeth grabbed him around the waist. I thought she was going to faint. Luckily, I was able to explain to her that she was my child and had a tendency to be a bit of a jokester. She finally believed what I was saying, but it took some convincing. She actually believed Elizabeth; thinking I was trying to cover-up a lie for her new husband.

"I'm a single parent too, so I understand what you mean." Bella sighs, looking over at her daughter.

"It's ok, really, Bella. Don't be so hard on yourself." I try to offer some sort of support.

She looks up at me, scraping her teeth across her lower lip. "I usually don't do this, but I was wondering… Edward, would you like to go out with me? I mean, maybe for coffee or something."

Her rambling is adorable. I almost don't want to answer her so she'll continue on. "Bella, I'd love to go out with you, for coffee or anything you want."

Her smile is blinding as she produces her phone, handing it to me. "Give me your number."

I program my number into her phone, calling myself so I'll have her number as well. "There, we have each other's numbers. Are you free tomorrow?"

She smiles shyly at me. "Yes. What did you have in mind?"

"I'd like to take you to dinner… get to know you. If that's okay with you?" I ask, hopefully.

"I'd like that, very much."

I nod my head. "Good. I'll call you later to setup the details."

-TNBC-

I picked Elizabeth up from my brother Emmett's house. She stays there with them when I work. It saves me money on having to pay for a babysitting service.

"Did you have a good time at Uncle Emmett's and Aunt Rose's today?" I ask, trying to draw her attention away from her drawing. She loves to draw, and has quite the talent for it since she's only eight years old.

I want to tell her about my date with Bella, but I'm nervous. I don't know how she'll react.

"Elizabeth, I need to tell you something." I peek at her through the rearview mirror.

She continues to draw in her sketch pad, ignoring me.

"Umm, I have a date tomorrow night."

Her hand stops moving, but she doesn't look up. I watch the road, but glance at her several times through the mirror, her face giving away nothing.

I guess I was a bit more nervous than I'd realized; driving a little faster than what I normally would. I look back in the mirror and see a cop flashing his blue lights at me.

"Shit. I'm getting pulled over, Elizabeth."

I carefully pull to the side of the road and roll my window down, awaiting the officer to approach my car.

"Going a little fast there wasn't you?" The cop asks.

"Yes, sir. Sorry."

"License and registration, sir."

"Yes, sir." I lean over to get it from my glove compartment.

"Your daddy was in a bit of a hurry, wasn't he?"

I hear Elizabeth mumble something, but I have no idea what she said. She's normally an outgoing child, so it wouldn't surprise to know she's talking to him. I hear the paper of her sketch pad being crumpled.

"Get out of the car, NOW!" The cop jerks my door open. I was already unbuckled because I'd taken my seatbelt off so I could reach over to get my registration out of the glove compartment.

The cop grabs me by my arm, and yanks me out of the car onto the ground, immediately throwing his weight on top of me.

"Wh—?"

Before I can say anything he's twisting my arms behind my back, and slapping handcuffs tightly on my wrists. "You're under arrest for kidnapping."

He pulls me up roughly causing me to groan in pain. When he turns me around, Elizabeth is sitting there, wide-eyed and looking scared.

"Why would you think that I'm a kidnapper?" I hiss through clenched teeth.

He shoves me against my car, patting me down. When he sees I'm not carrying any weapons. He reaches into my car, producing a piece of Elizabeth's sketch pad paper. Written on it, it says… _'help me that's not my dad'._

My head falls forward and lands with a thud on the hood of my car.

"Elizabeth… why would you do that?" My voice trembles as I ask my daughter, looking at her through the windshield of my car.

She looks me straight in the eyes. "You said you have a date tomorrow. I was mad." She responds nonchalantly, shrugging her petite shoulders.

The cop looks between us and scratches his head. "Wait. Is this your dad?" He asks Elizabeth, indicating to me.

"Yes," she mumbles.

"Could you maybe take these cuffs off?" I ask, exasperatedly.

He seems to shake out of his stupor. "Yeah, yeah… sorry about that." He apologizes as he removes the cuffs.

I rub my sore wrists. "It's understandable. You were just doing your job."

I sit in the car, my head resting on my steering wheel. I'm so damn frustrated with Elizabeth's antics. I can't think straight right now. She could have caused me some serious problems with her little stunt she just pulled.

"Elizabeth, why would you do that to me?" I question my daughter without taking my head off the steering wheel. I'm just so disappointed with her and that's not an emotion that I'm used to feeling when it comes to my daughter.

"I don't want you to leave me, daddy." Her voice trembles as she vocalizes her fears.

I turn around in my seat in order to face her. Her big, green eyes staring back at me are shining with unshed tears. I step out of the car and get into the backseat with her. "Elizabeth, baby, I'm not going anywhere." I tell her as I wrap her in my arms.

I can feel her shaking, her little hands fisting my jacket. "Everyone leaves me." She cries against my chest.

"Baby, look at daddy." I sit her up, pushing her hair away from her face. "I know you wish your mommy was here, sweetheart. I wish she could be here for you, too."

 _~memory~_

 _Maggie, she was someone I went out with for a few months. We didn't love each other, we were just having fun. That was until she showed up on my doorstep one day announcing she was pregnant._

 _We decided we were going to raise the baby together, but not as a couple, we just wasn't meant to be. I supported her in everything that she needed, went to all her appointments, and made all her food craving runs. When it came time for the birth, I was there for that, too._

 _There were complications from Elizabeth's birth. The doctor asked me to step out of the room. I followed the nurse to the nursery to watch her clean Elizabeth up, thinking Maggie would be okay._

 _I sat in a rocking chair, holding my daughter, when the doctor that had delivered Elizabeth came in, The doctor came to tell me they'd done everything they could for her. Maggie hemorrhaged and passed away from placenta previa, and I was left to care for Elizabeth on my own._

~end memory~

"You have Uncle Emmett, Aunt Rose, and even though they live far away, you have grandma and grandpa." I kiss her forehead as she nods her head.

"You know you'll always have me, right? Elizabeth, just because I want to go on a date with someone, that doesn't mean I won't love you anymore or that I'm going to leave you."

She's quiet, not saying anything or acknowledging me.

"Elizabeth, I love you, sweetheart. More than anything, but this acting out has got to stop. Do you understand? Daddy will always be your dad, no matter what. I… I just want us both to be happy."

She throws her arms around my neck, squeezing me tight. "I'm sorry, daddy." She cries, as she repeats it over and over again.

I rub her back soothingly. Hopefully this is a start to better behavior. "It's okay, baby. We're going to be alright." It _is_ going to be alright, I tell myself.

-TNBC-

Things have improved with Elizabeth and I's relationship since the _'That's not my daddy - cop incident'._

 _I called Bella the next day and made plans with her. We went out that following Saturday. I took her to this trendy European-style bistro that her best friend, Alice, told her about._

 _We talked about any and everything imaginable. We discovered how much our daughters were so similar._

 _Bella regaled me with a horror story of Carlie putting laxatives into a man's coffee she'd once dated. The poor, unsuspecting guy had to spend the entire day virtually chained to the toilet._

 _I couldn't help the laugh that passed my lips at the visual she painted of Jake's face when his stomach started the low rumble, and turned into what sounded like a Gremlin trying to eat its way through the walls of his belly as he clutched it, running towards the bathroom._

 _They didn't know what had happened until they heard Carlie giggling in her bedroom. When Bella went in to tell her it wasn't nice to laugh at others misfortune, she saw the SuperLax on Carlie's dresser. Apparently she'd stolen the laxatives from the bathroom's medicine cabinet._

 _Needless to say, Jake broke up with Bella, stating he never wanted to set eyes on her or her little hellion again._

-TNBC-

"I think we should introduce the girls." I tell Bella over the phone. We've been dating for three months now, things are going extremely well between us.

We've wanted to make sure things were going to work out between us before we introduced the kids into the equation; even though I've met Carlie before, officially, I'm Bella's boyfriend now. I'll be meeting her under a whole new set of circumstances.

Elizabeth has been behaving herself lately, for the most part, and Bella said that Carlie has, too.

"Okay, I think that's a good idea; it's time." Bella agrees.

I smile, although she can't see me. I love Bella, but we haven't said _that_ to each other yet. "So, do you both want to meet us at Zeek's? Say, six o'clock?"

"We'll be there." She says, and I can hear a smile in the tone of her voice.

-TNBC-

I walk into the pizza place, looking around at the small crowd. I spot Bella and Carlie sitting in the back, so I place my hand on Elizabeth's back and direct her towards their table.

"Hello, ladies." I announce our arrival as I lean down, kissing Bella on the cheek. "Have you been waiting long?"

Bella beams at me as I sit down beside her. "No, we just got here."

Elizabeth sits next to a now sulking Carlie. They both look like they're sucking on lemon wedges.

Great, this is going to be fun.

I plaster on a big smile. "This is my daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth this is Bella." I introduce them to each other.

Bella smiles kindly to her. "It's so nice to meet you."

"Yeah, yeah." Elizabeth mumbles. I squeeze Bella's hand under the table as an apology and she squeezes back in understanding.

"Edward, I'm sure you remember my daughter, Carlie." She looks to her daughter lovingly.

"Of course. It's nice to see you again."

She rolls her eyes at me. "What 'ev."

Okay, this is going swimmingly.

The waitress comes to our table, taking our drink orders. We all get a water to start with, since we've not had a chance to look over the menus.

The girls sit with their arms crossed, mouths puckered up, and looking every bit their eight years of age.

It'd be funny if it wasn't so frustrating. I know Bella's the one for me. I've never been so sure of something before in all my life.

I know I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her. I have to just convince her daughter that I'm worthy of her mother… and her.

We order our food, unable to decide what we want on our pizza, so we get two half size ones to share.

Bella's rubbing my thigh under the table as we talk, and I have to admit— I get a little lost in her beautiful, brown eyes as she tells me about her day.

She's such a wonderful person, her eyes sparkle when she talks about her job as an attorney. Ordinarily, I'd zone out listening to someone talk about this kinda stuff, but listening to her talk about it, or anything for that matter is like music to my ears.

Just like when I tell her about my days at the construction site. She looks at me like I've hung the moon, and she makes me feel like I can.

It doesn't even matter to me that she makes more money than I do. Some of the guys at the site have ribbed me about Bella being my 'sugar momma', which is ridiculous. She doesn't make enough to take care of us.

People think women can be catty gossips? They should listen to some men being busybodies.

I'm brought out of my musing by our two angels… arguing with each other.

"Your dad's stupid." Carlie tells Elizabeth.

"Yeah, well… your mom is… ugly." Elizabeth retorts.

"Hey, hey… that's enough of that." I tell them both.

"That's not nice, you two. You should apologize." Bella tells them.

They turn their angry glares towards us.

"You're not my dad!" Carlie screeches.

"You're not my mom." Elizabeth cries.

I sigh, I knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"Let me pay the bill. I'll meet you at your place in thirty minutes. Okay?" We're drawing unwanted attention. We should've done this in the privacy of one of our homes, but we thought things would go a bit better than this.

Bella pecks me on the lips, causing Carlie to go into a hissy fit.

That's how I ended up walking out of Zeek's with a soaked shirt in the middle of March. I never dreamed Carlie would throw a glass of water on me, but at least she didn't have any _SuperLax_ with her.

Baby steps…

Elizabeth and I pull into Bella's driveway an hour later. I had to run by my place in order to change my shirt. I couldn't go to her house wearing a wet shirt. I can't afford to get pneumonia.

Sitting down with Bella by my side, we face the girls. "You know I love you, Elizabeth."

She nods her head.

"Carlie, I love you, too." Bella tells her daughter.

Carlie acknowledges her by nodding.

Bella and I look at each other and we just know. "Bella, I love you...I'm in love with you."

She smiles at me; and it simultaneously melts my heart and expands it a hundred times too big for my chest. "I'm in love with you, too." She declares her love for me.

We turn our attention back to our hellraisers. "You don't have to like it, but we're together and there's nothing either of you can do that will break us apart." I tell them with an air of authority so they'll know I mean business.

"So, you both can start to come to terms with this and accept it, or live in misery. Either way, Edward and I are going to be together." Bella adds to my statement.

"We love you both. We just want you two to be happy, and to be happy for us."

"Can't you guys, please just do that?" Bella implores."

Both their bottom lips tremble, tears slipping down their little faces.

"She- she'll leave, just like mommy." Elizabeth cries.

I start to go to her, but Bella beats me to her. "Sweetie, I promise, I am not going to leave you. I will always be here for you." Bella wipes a tear from her cheek.

It warms my heart seeing her _mother_ my daughter. I look over to Carlie as she silently cries. "Come here, sweetheart." I open my arms to her.

She flies into my arms, throwing her tiny arms around my neck; her small frame shaking with her sobs. "Shhh… it's okay." I try to reassure her. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

-TNBC-

Things have moved fast for Bella and I.

We had a bit of a breakdown that night with the girls, but it lead to a huge breakthrough.

Things haven't been perfect for us, but together we're perfectly happy.

We dated for two more months after that fateful night before I decided to 'pop the question' to Bella. The thing about proposing to Bella, I just didn't have her and myself to consider - there were also our daughters.

I took them shopping with me and got their opinions on the engagement ring. They also helped with the outdoor picnic I planned, and the proposal that took place with them there.

We were married a couple months later. We had a small, intimate ceremony in our backyard. We had twinkle lights twined within the trees and chairs outlining the aisle Bella walked up to me.

She was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen with her simple, white wedding gown. It flowed down, barely brushing against the top of her bare feet. She didn't wear a veil, instead, opting for a ring of daisies to adorn her mahogany locks.

We exchanged traditional vows and cried as we said 'I do'.

All our family and friends were so happy to be there, helping us celebrate our love for each other.

As we danced under the stars, I didn't think I could be any happier. "Are you happy, my wife?" I asked my new consort, loving the way _wife_ sounded rolling off my tongue.

I could feel her intake of breath because we were so close to one another. "Deliriously so." She answered.

I squeezed her tight. "So, you were ok with the small wedding?" I asked worriedly.

She looked up at me with nothing but sincerity. "I would have married you in Vegas. Hell, I'd have married you at the courthouse. It didn't matter how or what the cost, Edward. It only mattered that we ended up here, together."

I leaned down and kiss her. "I love you, Mrs. Masen." I murmured against her lips.

She sighed a contented sigh. "I love you, too, my husband."

"I just wish I could give you… more. You know I don't have that much to give, though."

She looks around, spotting our two daughters sitting together looking at something on an iPad, giggling. "There's something I want that I don't already have."

"Really?" Bella is a self-sufficient woman that usually doesn't like for me to buy her things. "What can I give you that you don't already have?" I question her as we swayed slightly on the dance floor.

She bites her lip nervously. "A son." She whispered.

I stopped our movements, searching her brown orbs for any signs of her possibly kidding. There was only apprehension and excitement. "What if we have a girl?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't matter. We can keep trying, right?" She was acting so nonchalant about this, like we were talking about what to fix for dinner.

If she was okay with more kids, then so was I. "Sure. Let's have a whole baseball team." I joked.

She scoffed. "Why stop there? Let's have two teams, that way they can play against each other." I knew that she was joking… I hoped she was, at least.

That following September we found out we were pregnant, making us both two of the happiest people there ever was.

We had decided on our wedding day that we wanted to start to try to get pregnant right away. So Bella threw out her birth control on the way to the hotel. We decided not to go on a lavish honeymoon since we had the girls. So we spent five days at Loews Hotel, in an elegant, contemporary suite.

We wanted to be close and available, just in case one of the girls were to need us. We stayed in touch with them, talking to each of them daily, but thankfully there weren't any emergencies.

With those two… you just never know?

In November, we did find out we were going to have a son, and everyone was extremely happy, even the girls.

-TNBC-

Bella and I decided that for our first Christmas as a family we were going to spend it in a cabin her family owned in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This would be Elizabeth's and my first time seeing the Smokey Mountains, and we were pretty excited about going.

The night before Christmas, I grab my Santa gear, and race out to the outbuilding behind the cabin so I can suit up.

Elizabeth and Carlie have been on the fence about their beliefs on whether or not they think Santa is real.

I'm determined to try and keep that magic alive for as long as I possibly can.

The outbuilding doesn't have any heat, so I change as quickly as possible.

I grab my red sack full of their _'Santa'_ presents I had stowed away, and sneak around to the front deck.

This 'Ole Saint Nick isn't coming down the chimney tonight.

I make as much noise as I can when I step up on the porch, knowing the girls will look out the window.

"Santa!" They both squeal with delight.

I chuckle loudly. "Shhh… you don't want to wake your parents." I press my index finger to my lips, knowing Bella is listening from an open window from upstairs.

They look at me with wide-eyed wonder, nodding their little heads.

"Have you been good girls?" I disguise my voice.

"Oh, yes, Santa, we've tried so hard."

I am so proud of the two of them. They have been trying to be so good.

"Run to bed, and when you get up in the morning, you'll have presents to open."

"Okay, Santa." They take off running, and I hear my wife shut the window from our bedroom.

I deposit the presents beside the doorway, and go back to change into my regular clothes.

I climb into bed and snuggle up with Bella, who's almost five months pregnant with our son.

Life's been crazy since we met. It feels like it goes a hundred miles an hour, but I wouldn't change a thing.

* * *

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